[Observer Walt]

The reference to 1000 Bay has been dropped from Cresford's advertising, and I recently heard a rumor (unconfirmed but from a generally reliable source) that the building will not be going ahead.

Given this property's prime location, I would interpret that as: Cresford will not be building it by themselves, but someone else will undoubtedly step in, maybe as a joint venture partner.

 

[Mike in TO]

The land parcel was sold on June 6th for about $11,000,000.

 

[Redroom Studios]

hmmm... cold feet about the direction of the condo market?

 

[Observer Walt]

The land parcel was sold on June 6th for about $11,000,000.

Mike, thank you. That has not yet shown up on Geowarehouse, my main source of data. Do you happen to know the identity of the buyer?

 

[Mike in TO]

Do you happen to know the identity of the buyer?

Unfortunately I did not, so I'm not sure if Cresford was closing on the property or if they were flipping it to someone else.

hmmm... cold feet about the direction of the condo market

The market has slowed dramatically over the past several months while inventories have been increasing - there are a lot of developers getting cold feet out there.

 

[Observer Walt]

Unfortunately I did not, so I'm not sure if Cresford was closing on the property or if they were flipping it to someone else.

Cresford closed on their own purchase of the property last October, at a price of $10,750,000 ($869 per square foot). A new sale now would be a full sale or a partial sale by Cresford to another party. I'll try to get some further info.

There is no doubt that the market is slowing, but this location is so good that I would have to think something will be going here regardless. I'll expect to see a proposal of some kind sooner than later.

 

[urbandreamer]

In a downturn, I see Cresford going out of business. They deserve it.

So why are real estate agents pretending there's no downturn in condo sales, when clearly there is (according to Mike in TO)?

 

[notyouagain]

Further evidence is the SW corner lot at Bay and Dundas which was returned to a parking lot. They demolished the presentation centre. Too bad. I would have liked to have seen phase 2 of the one city hall condos.

 

[Mike in TO]

So why are real estate agents pretending there's no downturn in condo sales, when clearly there is (according to Mike in TO)?

Urbandreamer,

It's a numbers game - Q1 new condo sales were 3,433 in 2008, which is only 8 units fewer then Q1-07 - so at first glance the numbers look good. However the 2008 sales were spread over 25% more buildings that are now on the market and the other key feature of the 2008 numbers is that 20% of the sales were all in one building (Aura) - so sales traffic has slowed dramatically and has continued to do so in May and June.

Overall sales in the GTA including low-rise are down 23% from last year.

 

[urbandreamer]

So Investor and myself were correct with our prediction! Yet so many people here said investor was a fool. Hmm. I'm sure glad I wasn't the fool that bought in Aura or 1 Bloor Est.

Price correction coming next, folks! (Developers keep increasing prices for now, to offset labour, land etc costs. Damn, it's gonna be a nasty drop! )

 

[beaconer]

the only issue with investor/realestatejunkie/vultur/caveat emptor/etc was his tact and his repeated inability to realize it after being banned several times over.

 

[DaninToronto]

I can only think of this as being a good thing given Cresford's track record and the experiences people have had with them. Hopefully a more reliable developer will be the one who snapped it up.

 

[Therion]

One less Cresford project can only be a good thing. It does look now that the market has peaked. This does not mean that it will start heading down. The fact that this year's numbers are fairly close to last year's is a good sign, because in a crash it would have been a very severe drop (obviously). I think prices will stagnate at current levels or close to it for a little while, before the market decides which direction to go based on supply/demand. Prices have not gotten out of hand enough for a full-blown correction, based on global numbers and affordability.

 

[alklay]

So Investor and myself were correct with our prediction!

You guys have been yelling and screaming about the sky falling.

All that has happened is a decrease in sales: what one would argue is a healthier level of sales. And that is a good thing. Prices are still going up in the housing market and its still a seller's market. This is hardly the disaster and the 'freefall' that was predicted 1000 times over.

 

[confusion]

First off, glad Cresford is off of this lot. I don't like any of their buildings.

Second, Irregardless of what the market is doing, I think that area of the downtown condo market is a market of its own. You can't argue with a location like this lot. There can only be so many condos put in beside Queen's park. This is one of the last remaining parking lots of this area. Once the last parking lot disapears, the only new buildings going up will be where an existing one is demolished.

And third, again look at the location. This parking lot is prime real estate, I don't think you can get a much better location if you were going to live downtown. I've walked by this place many times thinking that there should be a building here, either commericial or residential. Preferably residential.